Enfocus is moving to Artwork Systems' headquarters and the two R&D teams will be working together more closely on future product development.

"Our combined R&D capabilities will create a positive synergy for developing new software," said Artwork Systems chairman Guido Van der Schueren.

Enfocus will exist as an independent business unit within Artwork Systems, but the human resources, IT and finance departments will be integrated.

As a result of the changes Enfocus chief executive David van Driessche has stepped down. Enfocus sales and marketing director Patrick Van Dam has been made vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, heading the Enfocus business unit and reporting to Van der Schueren.

"As an independent business unit within Artwork Systems we will continue to develop our own successful strategy and continue to serve our OEM partners, distributors and resellers as before," said Van Dam.

The fortunes of Artwork Systems took an upward turn this year, with the firm reporting a net profit of 8.7m (E12.65m) for the 12 months to 30 September, compared to a loss of 1.1m last year. Turnover was up by nearly 7% to 32.5m.

The company said Drupa 2004 had generated interest in its new products Odystar and Certified PDF, as well as updates of ArtPro and Nexus. The company claimed the continuing weakness of the US dollar held revenues back by around 5%, adding that it wants to push turnover to 35.2m in 2005, with intended profit up to 8.9m.

Story by Adam Hill